BIAY - Choose Who You Will Serve
Joshua 22-24, Psalm 59
Welcome to the Bible in a Year for 2025. Intro to this series and resource links available here, plus here’s how I’m approaching this year.
Scriptures for Today:
Reflection:
Altar Scandal (Almost) (22:21-34) - Drift and division were big dangers. A few tribes building an alternative altar could be a rival site of worship and drift into a rival religion. I appreciate how seriously this is taken by the other tribes. Just as good, the tribes in question show they are in the same page as they agree about the danger and have a different and legitimate reason for the altar.
“As for me and my house…” (24:15) - This is one of the great and famous verses and passages in the Bible and for good reason. We all have to decide who or what we will put first in our lives. Joshua knew that we will be presented with plenty of things to make our first priority. We do that with our time, with our wallets, and with our hearts. Joshua’s stern word is that the people (us too?) won’t do it—they will entertain rivals to God’s primacy. Perhaps we are more likely to serve God second or third rather than first. Joshua knows that no one puts God first by accident. It takes a decision. Which leads, after his speech in chapters 23 and 24, to his great declaration, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Questions:
Have you made a decision to serve God first?
What are the rivals in your life to putting God first?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, you are my strength, my fortress, my God on whom I can rely. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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